Metodologías instrumentales

The theory of self-organization stems from the fields of biology, where the living organism spends much of its life as thousands of distinct units, each of which moves separately from the others, but then, under the right conditions, those thousands cells will be merged into a single larger organization (Wheatley, 1999).

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and their function in response to external circumstances. Self-organizing systems have been discovered in nature, in the non-living (e.g. stars) and living world (e.g. organisms). However, Self- organization theory has been applied to other systems such as economics (Krugman, 1996) and computer-supported collaborative work, examining the ways in which “groupware” systems support self-organization (Eriksson & Wulf, 1999).

This analysis of living systems and cognition was the base for the development of Autopoietic theory, which provides a theoretical framework for analysing the social systems in which we, as living organisms, participate. Taking the example of autopoiesis is a cell, Maturana and Varela viewed autopoietic systems as unities, “as network of productions of components, which through their interactions generate and realize the network that produces them and constitute, in the space in which they exist, the boundaries of the network as components that participate in the realization of the network” (Maturana, 1981, p. 21).

In an attempt to analyse social systems as autopoietic systems, Luhmann (1886) studied the autopoiesis of social systems, defining “communications as the basic elements of social systems”. He viewed communications as the essential elements for any social system, “recursively produced and reproduced by a network of communications and which cannot exist outside of such network” (Luhmann, 1986, p.174). Later, Teubner (1988) attempted to describe law and the legal system as an autopoietic system, while Robb (1989) described the field of accounting and Autopoietic theory, which seem to provide an interesting theoretical basis for addressing our everyday social interactions, constituting a very complex social system in which we all live and strive to survive. In multiplayer games the concept of self-organization occurs as players form social networks. At the start of the game any player is not part of a group by a central mechanism. In addition, there are no rules about how they should fit the players into groups. However, the clustering in a multiplayer game is totally spontaneous and self-organized, through a process of negotiation between players, based on based on emergent norms and relationships (Galarneau, 2005). Gibson, Aldrich and Prensky (2006) state that it is remarkable how well the diverse groups of people of different age groups, gender and culture, manage to play together and self-manage conflicts when they arise.

In multiplayer games, players are self-organized into social groups (clans, guilds). When groups are initially formed, “they are often chaotic and disorganized; but over a period of time, a spontaneous order emerges as players learn to sync their behaviours to the behaviours of other players” (Gibson, Aldrich & Prensky, 2006, p.76). The numerous groups of players, including individuals from around the world, “emerge in an entirely decentralised and self-organised way, engaging in group pursuits and assisting each other to learn how the game world functions, or even co-producing the game world in a negotiated dance with developers. This group emergence follows the classic rules of emergence in biological systems” (Galarneau, 2005).

5

Methodology

This paper outlines the theoretical rationale behind a doctoral research project currently in progress, which examines the leadership skills that can be developed in a self-organized community in MMOGs. The main questions that this project attempts to address are:

• What characteristics, related to the social nature of MMOGs, activate leadership skills?

• Do these leadership skills activate teamwork and sense of community?

• What MMOGs can teach us about the design of successful online social spaces and activities for teaching leadership skills?

Moreover, it is noted that “researchers interested in pursuing leadership in games would be well served to start by seeing if the foundation is strong, as there are evidences that leading a virtual team has many differences that using leadership techniques when leading a traditional team” (Lisk, Kaplancali & Riggio, 2011, p.12).

Thus, the first stage of this research approach is an in depth exploration of the basic leadership theory models, in order to assess their suitability for analyzing the virtual teams of MMOG players. This project aims at highlighting the characteristics of these social massively gaming communities that

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foster leadership skills and activate team work, offering design principles and educational activities for teaching leadership skills to virtual teams.

Online gaming environments offer an opportunity to gather data remotely and anonymously (Wood, Griffiths, & Eatough, 2004), either by the environments itself, or using self-reports from the players. And while ethnographic research has the benefit of understanding true depth and context, this can never be fully captured by survey or experimental methods (Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, Moore, 2006). In this project a multi-method approach will be used to take advantage of ethnographic work (depth) and combining it with the advantages of most survey-based work (breadth and representativeness) (Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, Moore, 2006) in order to bring together the strengths of both forms of research to validate results.

In social sciences, mixed methods research is considered a legitimate, stand-alone research design (Creswell, 2003). A mixed methods study is a “collection or analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data in a single study in which the data are collected concurrently or sequentially, are given a priority, and involve the integration of the data at one or more stages in the process of research” (Creswell, Plano Clark, Gutmann, & Hanson, 2003, p. 212). By including both quantitative and qualitative data in a study, the results may be enriched in ways that one form of data does not allow (Hanson et al., 2005). This mixed methods design will be used to combine different but complementary data to “uncover some unique variance which otherwise may have been neglected by a single method” (Jick, 1979, p. 603).

The unit of analysis for this PhD project will be the individual leader of a guild in a MMOG. The individual analysis was chosen since this project aims at focusing on the leaders’ skills (Subject) and their affect to the guild’s teamwork and sense of community (Community), according to Activity Theory, which will be the main framework of this study.

6

Preliminary Findings

In order to investigate the relationship of MMOGs’ players, a preliminary study was conducted in a population of 64 guild members, playing a MMOG called World of Warcraft (WoW). The research focused on this MMOG, due to its popularity across the globe with more than 12 million subscribers worldwide (Blizzard Entertainment, 2010). The sample of the research were 64 WoW players, who were chosen from a wider sample of 100 MMOG players, due to their participation in WoW’s groups (guilds) (response rate =64%).

The preliminary work of this thesis focused more on the investigation of the relationship between physiological factors in MMOGs, such as sense of belonging in a group and intrinsic motivation. The research hypotheses where:

1: Is there a relationship between the sense of community and performance in the game?

2: Is there a relationship between the sense of community and intrinsic motivation in playing the

game?

The theoretical framework of intrinsic motivation in games by Malone and Lepper (1987) was used to create a 7-item closed-response questionnaire, with which subjects were asked to rate each item (challenge, fantasy, control, curiosity, cooperation, competition and recognition on a 5-point Likert scale. In order to examine the sense of community in WoW, the questionnaire of McMillan and Chavis (1986) was used, which is broadly validated and widely utilized questionnaire concerning sense of community in the psychological literature. Subjects were asked to rate their feelings concerning their sense of belonging in the gaming community (in a game’s guild) for each of the questionnaire’s items (feelings of membership, feelings of influence, integration and fulfilment of needs, and shared emotional connection), on a 5-point Likert scale. Finally, a questionnaire was used for the collection of self-reported data concerning players’ performance, including the frequency of game play (hours per week), their current level in the game and the level completion time (amount of time required for a level to be completed) on a 5-point Likert scale.

The reliability of the instrument used in this research (Cronbach's Alpha) was =0,736. Pearson

correlation analysis indicated a strong positive relationship between sense of community and intrinsic motivation (r=0.479**) and between sense of community and game performance (0.298*) (Mysirlaki & Paraskeva, 2010).

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We conclude that there seem to be a relationship between the sense of belonging in a games’ community (strong feelings of membership, influence, integration, fulfilment of needs and shared emotional connection) and the players’ intrinsic motivation (high levels of challenge, fantasy, control, curiosity, cooperation, competition and recognition in the game). Moreover, there seems to be a strong positive relationship between the feeling of belonging in a community (strong feelings of membership, influence, integration, fulfilment of needs and shared emotional connection), and high performance (higher frequency of game play, higher level in the game and higher level completion time) in MMOGs.

Thus, the ability to create groups and develop a strong sense of community in a game can be motivating for the players and can be positively related to high game performance. This means that the performance of a player can be enhanced when the sense of community in a game is strong. The findings of the research imply that the development of communities in a game is possible to increase intrinsic motivation to players and enhance their performance in the game.

In these preliminary findings, the activity theory system was highlighted by some important psychosocial issues (Figure 2). This system is considered as a complex social network, where subjects interact with numerous factors of the games to lead themselves to the desired outcome.

Figure 2. The Findings of the Preliminary Study under the light of the Activity Theory

For the purposes of this PhD thesis, the activity system theory will be used to analyze MMOGs (such as the game WoW) not as just games, but as complex systems that have characteristics that can be useful for other domains, such as enterprise and training settings, by exploring players’ leadership skills and their effect on their team.

In a multiplayer game, an activity theory system would represent the interactions among the Subjects, the Objects, the Tools, the Rules, the Community and the Division of Labor as they appear in a game, forming large communities in an expanded and more complex socio-cultural context. Thus, Activity theory could be an interesting theoretical framework for analyzing these communities of practices, where numerous players interact with others (subject), using the tools of the game (object), under specified rules and create communities, in order to win (outcome) through certain game activities (division of labor).

This framework aims at examining the creation of communities and the development of leadership skills in MMOGs, in order to explore and validate factors that could strengthen or undermine the relationships between players in Multiplayer Games. The study of the social structures of a group and the leadership skills that can be developed in a MMOG should result to specific design principles that could be used as design methods for developing effective collaborative environments for virtual teams.

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